Cultsha Kennis

Chenal Kock and Jeremeo Le Cordeur are two young and inspired performing artists in Cape Town. Together they formed a Vulture Productions duo, where their triple-feature show of 30mins each is playing at the Masambe Theatre (Baxter Theatre) until 28 December 2019: Jerry, an Unconventional Hero , Dude Wa’s My Bakkie and Mama . So as julle nie planne hettie vir Desember nie, is hierrie drie shows die perfekte kans vir julle om goodbye vir 2019 te sê! Both Chenal and Jeremeo are tertiary educated performing artists from City Varsity and Stellenbosch University, who graduated with scriptwriting, performing and directing skillsets. Both of them have completed the Brouhaha artist residency in the UK, where they represented the Artscape Theatre and collaborated with several international theatre groups. In 2019, we were also pleasantly surprised to discover them at the David Kramer Musical Masterclass program at the Baxter Theatre, a course that proved to be a theatrical catalyst f

As ô s gewiet’t dat Aunty Merle nie daai lemon meringuewww klaa virrie show gemaak’tie, kan ô s mos ‘n plan gemaak’t! In elk geval the preview of Aunty Merle It’s Girl was tog sweet, sour, rich and decadent anyhow – aal die lemon meringuewww flavours ammal te saam!  How many comedy musical shows do you know that can kiellie the audience’s funny bone in any scene, even when the tone of the scene is melancholy and disappointment?! Our answer: not many, except for one Marc Lottering. Not many people know that the character of Aunty Merle was born out of another production written by Marc Lottering himself, From The Cape Flats With Love. This was the very first time we got to hear about Athlone’s Rose and her fabulous adventures with her husband Dennis (We are all German Carribeans!) and Shmiley, the taxi gaatjie – oh ja, but Aunty Merle don’t take taxi because Dennis drives her in a metallic green BM!  So naturally the theatre creator in us was jits opgewonde to find out

When last have YOU been to a leqqa (we say “leqqa” with a qaaf, die regte tajweed!) musical show, where not only was there a strictly pre-millenial old school playlist, but also where the audience was up on their feet and jolling to every single track for the entire second act?! Wednesday night this week at the Artscape Theatre’s Opera House is our response! The Best of Boogie show by Ganarama Productions, led by Rafiek Mammon and Gary Naidoo, celebrates their 10 year anniversary of bringing 80’s and 90’s music to Cape Town, and Cultsha Kennis was qwaai enough to be invited to the opening night of this show! It was just ‘n paar ure right before Best of Boogie, when we finished watched Pose , a Netflix series that celebrates the Afro-American transsexual community in 1980’s New York, and the fashion, music and ballroom culture that existed outside of mainstream culture during that decade. So you can imagine the butterflies of excitement we had for Best of Boogie after Pose

On Saturday 26 October 2019 (a day after arriving back from our playwright’s residency programme!), Cultsha Kennis finally had the opportunity to see Danger in the Dark at the Baxter Theatre, a David Kramer musical, featuring music by his late and well-loved theatre partner, Taliep Petersen – but with a new libretto!    Danger in the Dark is a remake of the Kramer/Petersen hit of the 90’s, Poison, an upbeat musical that tells the story, through 8 lead characters and a 14 member chorus, of the atrocities of drug abuse on the Cape Flats, as well as the hope and dream for its inhabitants to overcome it all.   The story’s protagonist, Pamela ( Alexis Petersen ), is a young social worker who is encouraged by a housewife, Mrs Joseph ( Edith Plaatjies ), to take to the streets and challenge the status quo. Aware of the impossible cause before her, Pamela’s motivation increases once she discovers that her friend Juanita ( Rushney Ferguson ), a young rebellion and aspiring singe

The image of the ‘non-whites only’ bench in Queen Victoria Street Cape Town, a reminder of Apartheid South Africa, comes to mind when looking at the on-set photographs of Nwabisa Plaatjie ’s Florence & Wine in the Wilderness , a production consisting of two combined plays, which closed at the Baxter Theatre recently. Originally written by American playwright Alice Childress , each play uniquely highlights the various socio-political, cultural, communal and intimately personal narratives that takes place within a 1940’s African American setting. Alice Childress is acknowledged as " the only  African-American  woman to have written, produced, and published plays for four decades ”. The urgency of the voices of her stories are most certainly felt through the characters in both plays, particular in Tomorrow Marie, the lead female protagonist in Wine in the Wilderness .  Cultsha Kennis with Nwabisa Plaatjie Review of Florence Florence opened with an elderly woman

The Battered Housewives Club, written and directed by Zubayr Charles, is a school drama production that was staged on Friday 20 September at Goodhope Seminary Girls High School in Hope Street, Gardens Cape Town. Produced as an acapella jukebox musical, the show cleverly makes use of popular contemporary radio tracks to help tell the story of each of the victims, each who rendered a performance of the song during the storytelling.      Sally reveals her story in the second act  Starring an all-female high school cast , the show took us on a journey of five victims of gender-based violence who share their experiences at a support group, called The Battered Housewives Club. Fatima (Micaela Barnett; Grade 11), a quiet housewife with a black eye (she says “I am so clumsy”) who is known for her cooking, reveals that she accidently stabs her husband Ayoeb during a power struggle while making mince breedie in the kitchen, and what the consequences were for their adol

The story of Cassandra Johnson in No “Good” In “Bye” sheds light on the plight of mothers and the issue of physical and environmental safety that affects their children and households on a daily basis in smaller communities. On Thursday 1 August 2019 at the Masambe Theatre , Lauren Snyders , who played the role of Cassandra , and her equally talented co- partner Shaun Smith , who played the role of Craig/Brendan, took the audience on an emotional journey of what it means to process pain as one revisits past memories in the midst of loss and grief.      The show took place over 4 days, with 5 performances. Upon entering the theatre, the set of Cassandra’s house was introduced to the audience: a kitchen table, a stove with tomato food brewing , a kitchen cupboard (with All Gold tomato sauce and a biscuit box!) with a Pick ‘n Pay packet hanging from the side. Other props were later introduced to support the story, such as an empty coffin referencing the memory of Craig

Loukmaan Adams with Cultsha Kennis Author at #JustMen 2018 Directed by Heinrich Reisenhofer, #JustMen has returned to the Baxter Theatre after a successful run in 2018, and is currently playing from 17 July to 3 August 2019 . Book your tickets fast via Webticket . Show duration: 70mins. Age restriction: 13. Trigger warning : the content of this show addresses abuse, violence and murder. For more details on where to book:   http://www.baxter.co.za/shows/justmen-2/ This show was written and produced in response to the global outbreak of the #Metoo movement in 2016, where millions of women broke the silence on abuse, violence and murder . The show also encourages support and responsibility from men as a collective for what is a man’s part of this conversation, as per the show’s opening epilogue, “ we want men to show up, own up and open up ”. Further on in Heinrich’s address, and when sharing his own story, he also highlights how men are at war with themselves due to the v

Soos ‘os gisteraand gese’t, dis ongelooflik wat ‘n akteur kan doen met net 50 minute! Aangesien dat dit net die tweede keur wat ‘os Carlo Daniels op die verhoog gesien’t (die eerste keur was Blood Brothers by die Fugard Theatre in 2014!), hierrie one-man show was die perfekte geleentheid vir Cultsha Kennis beter vir hom te leer ken.     Carlo se performance het baie verskillende karakters vir ‘os bekendgestel: Chadwin Klip (bynaam Klippie) wat op verhoor is vir die moord van sy vriend Rooiste; Maggie Booysen, ‘n joernalis van etv news wat die moord verhoor geondersoek’t (Carlo was op sy tone die hele tyd want die joernalis dra net stilletos!); en Boeta Ballie , ‘n vrugteverkope sonder tanne met ‘n slap in sy voet, en wat sy ervaring van Klippie gegee’t vir die news broadcast. Die karakters het sommige tuie gebots ; daar was ‘n brilliante scene waar Klippie vir die joernalis ge’choke’t – ‘n waarlike demonstrasie van die talent van Carlo Daniels!   Albei het allie charak

Salaam Stories , written by Ashraf Johaardien and directed by Niquita Hartley, was recently staged at the Theatre Arts Admin Collective in Observatory – the 2nd time that Cultsha Kennis has seen the show since 2003! Ashraf Johaardien is a Cape Town born playwright whose work has toured internationally. Salaam Stories is a development of the Artscape New Writing Program in 2006, directed by Professor Roy Sargeant. When the show ran at the Baxter Theatre in 2003, the show casted well-loved theatre personalities Chad Abrahams and Farouk Vallie Omar as well as Sufeya Johaardien and Niquita Ayesha Hartley – with Niquita stepping up as director of the show! This time Salaam Stories was executed as a one-man performance, played by Ashalin Singh, which tells the story of several Cape Muslim characters as they reflect on family tradition, history and cultural identity. The story begins with the main narrator arriving on set in eastern garbs, making wudhu (ablution) from a pot